My love affair with Kings of Convenience
MANILA, Philippines - How much can one love a band and its music? In my — and my buddies Joff Cruz and Quark Henares’ — case, it can go to the greatest lengths. Like collecting all their albums, to listening to our favorite tracks repeatedly, to daydreaming about catching them live, to traveling overseas, to watching them play live. Of late, the fandom has reached its highest level. We’ve decided to bring our favorite international indie bands to our shores so all of our friends and fellow fans can share our fervor as well.
Our little group is called Intercept! and we were born one random night at Café Saguijo when we all decided to pool our energies in bringing in our favorite acts to Manila. Our first effort was last December’s +/- {Plus/Minus} affair, where the New York-based indietronic band played their sophomore gig here at Encore Fly. That fateful night, our little partnership was formed, Quark, Joff and I agreed that we all loved the Norwegian acoustic pop/bossa nova duo Kings of Convenience (KoC) and that would be a stellar band to bring in.
Well, what do you know, it happens sooner than later! On Wednesday, March 31, our favorite Scandinavians (including solo artist Jens Lekman of Sweden), will be performing at the NBC Tent, their first time to grace a Philippine stage. The response has been overwhelming — little did we know that KoC has such a solid following here in the Philippines!
From that one night in January when I organized a little fan gig/tribute night at Café Saguijo called “We Wanna See Kings of Convenience in Manila!” our guest list has grown so long we had to change venues from a 600-person affair to that grand tent in Taguig. The bands that played that night were among the biggest followers of the band as well: Outerhope, The Camerawalls, Us-2 Evil-0, Waya, and yours truly (I also moonlight as a singer-pianist when I am not designing). All of us will be going bonkers at the KoC show end of this month. 
Being a super fangirl of KoC, I am writing this article from Singapore to catch KoC here at the Mosaic Music Festival (as if the Manila gig won’t be enough!) and I had the good fortune of meeting the boys at the lobby of their hotel before they sound checked at the Esplanade.
Erlend Oye, the frontman of the duo, personally expressed his enthusiasm for the Manila shindig. “I am very much looking forward to playing for all of you in Manila. We’ll be playing old songs and new songs at the concert.” Of course, I am reduced to a pile of mush by the time I meet his partner, Eirik Boe as well. I’m now thinking of all my favorite tracks from their three albums, “Quiet is the New Loud,” “Riot on an Empty Street,” and their latest offering, “Declaration of Dependence.”
Regardless of what’s on their set list tonight and on March 31, I know my love for Kings of Convenience will not be in vain — it will be shared by the rest of the folks in the audience, old and new fans alike. I hope you will be among the lucky ones to catch them in Manila!
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Kings of Convenience are playing March 31, 7:30 p..m at the NBC Tent with Jens Lekman. Tickets are available at Mag:Net High Street, Kate Torralba Greenbelt 5, Route 196, and Sputnik Cubao X. This event is presented by Intercept! Productions, in cooperation with Kindassault Records. This event is also sponsored by Hotel Celeste, Channel V, Velvet, Jam 88.3, NU107, UNO Magazine, Absolut Vodka, RJUR, and Splintr.com.
